Ordinarily, to open draperies, the draperies are manually moved along a drapery cord between open and closed positions. This, of course, effectively regulates the amount of light entering a room.
It is often desirable to have motorized drapery actuators to open and close draperies. Such drapery actuators have a drive pulley to engage a drapery cord which engages draperies and the like. Actuation of the drive pulley opens and closes the draperies. There must be proper tension on the drapery cord to enable the drive pulley to effectively move the drapery cord.
Such drapery actuators are mounted on a wall to enable the drive pulleys to engage the drapery cord to open and close the draperies.
Actuators which are operated by wireless remote control are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,958,112 which issued Sep. 18, 1990, to Zerillo discloses a drapery actuator. A pull cord is affixed to a drapery rod, which has drapes mounted thereon, to form a bight with vertical and parallel reaches. The drapery actuator has a pair of limit switches in the form of single pole, single-throw normally open reed switches to variably regulate the open and closed positions of the drapes. These switches are actuated by drapery actuators which are magnets affixed to the reaches at positions corresponding to the open and closed positions of the drapes. When a magnet is in actuation position with a limit switch, the switch closes completing the electrical circuit. When a magnet moves away from a switch, the switch will return to an open position preventing electricity from passing beyond the switch. The magnets are manually adjusted along the reaches to correspond to the desired open and closed positions of the drapes. As the drapes are opened and closed, the pull cord may stretch due to wear on the pull cord causing the pull cord to slacken slightly. The magnets will then have to be manually adjusted along the reaches for opening and closing of the drapes. The positioning of the magnets on the vertical reaches to open and close the switches is limited to the length of the vertical reaches. Since the open and closed positions of the drapes are regulated by the magnets, those positions are also limited by the lengths of the reaches. The length of the reaches must be at least as long as the drapery rod and the width of the drapes on the drapery rod or the magnets will engage the switches in a position where the drapes are not fully open or fully closed. Thus, this device would not be suitable for long drapery rods, i.e. wide windows or wall coverings, where the room has a low ceiling since the vertical reaches would be shorter in length than the length of the drapery rod causing the magnets to engage the switches when the drapes are not fully open or fully closed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,914,360 which issued Apr. 3, 1990 to Hsieh et al. discloses a venetian blind controller for controlling the opening and closing of a vertical venetian blind and for controlling the angular position of the blades by means of two separate motors, each motor having an electromagnetic clutch means to allow manual operation in the event of a power failure.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,117,767 which issued Jan. 14, 1974 to McLean et al. discloses a motorized drapery puller having a casing which supports a motor driven pulley. The casing and pulley are slidably positionable within a bracket to allow variable positioning of the pulley to engage a drapery cord.
It is desirable to have a motorized drapery actuator which does not frequently require manual adjustment of actuators to regulate the open and closed positions of the draperies and which may be used to regulate open and closed positions of draperies for different widths of windows and wall coverings.